Was there too many episodes about the holodeck in 24th century episodes (even one of the earliest episodes of Enterprise had a holodeck)?
The holodeck is an okay plot device, but having so many episodes based around it, made it wear out its welcome. All of those episodes where the Holodeck flips out and tries to kill the crew makes me think its use would have become restricted over time.
Considering Voyager was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no support and not many resources, the Holodeck should been used for official purposes only and then only very rarely. The story of Voyager having to survive in the middle of nowhere is undermined when the crew can go into their own personal fantasy world, whenever they felt like it.
But even today many of us like to escape from the every day task to some fantasy world, be it watching a TV/film or playing a video game. The same would be true for the crew of VOY escaping from where there are in to a world of fantasy.
Far too many, especially on Voyager. That ship should have been beaten up and falling to pieces by the end of that series, not looking like it had just rolled out of the showroom. I think non-essential systems like a holodeck would have been powered down to conserve power, or stripped for spare parts.
Why? The holodeck power system was incompatabile with the rest of the ship on the Intrepid Class vessel.